Whittled Words – Anagram Poem
Welcome to the weekly series, Whittled Words. A series highlighting the innumerable types and styles of poetry to challenge any creative wordsmith. This week’s selection:
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ANAGRAM POEM
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While reading “The Best American Poetry 2007”, I came across this very different form of poetry referred to as an Anagram poem. I was intrigued by it but have avoided it, as any thought about writing in this form made me shiver with dread at the work that may be involved. But, if we always avoid the hard things, we can never truly grow our art in every way possible. So, here goes.
In an anagrammatic poem, all the words the poet uses in the body of the poem are an anagram of the title of the poem. The real challenge with this kind of poem was first picking a word or words that have at least a couple vowels and a good mix of consonants for the title. Then, you brainstorm all the words you can think of using only those letters (as many times as you wish, of course). Creating that word list really gave me a new appreciation of the importance and diversity one extra letter can bring to the table.
After creating a word list, it is just a matter of playing around with different word combinations. You may find it difficult to touch on deep or intellectual subjects with the limited vocabulary, but it can still convey a message, still be beautiful, and most important to anything we write, it can be fun.
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Examples of Anagram Poems:
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SPREAD
by Robert Lee Brewer
Red dresses drape spare dressers,
pass dreaded pear parades…
Spears reads radar passes,
spares dapper dad seeds…
Dear are dead are dads
are ads pressed deep sea dares…
Dear papa pared raps,
spread seeds, snapped red era apps…
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VOWELS
By Christian Bök
loveless vessels
we vow
solo love
we see
love solve loss
else we see
love sow woe
selves we woo
we lose
we owe
we sell
loose vows
so we love
less well
so low
so level
wolves evolve
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CONTEMPROARY ANAGRAMS
By Brad Osborne
Contrary to grammar
Momentary monogamy
A magenta mortar
Traces any crayon
Narrate peasantry
Strong arcs potency
An arrogant manner
Pagan roars stammer
Arcane sarcoma
Pregnant company
Cramps groomsman
Tamper persona
Portray romances
Repay Roman mantra
Man’s program smear
Sorcery promotes years
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I hope you have enjoyed this entry to the series, Whittled Words. I look forward to your comments, and if you dare, maybe share your own anagram poem. Thanks for reading!
Wow, this really takes an amazing amount of skill!
More patience than skill, but thank you kindly!
Wow that is probably the most difficult type of poetic form I have seen you master. That must have taken a while to come up
With your word.
These were my favorite lines:
“Narrate peasantry
Strong arcs potency
An arrogant manner
Pagan roars stammer”
You wrote an interesting poem my friend but I got to tell you I don’t know how long it would take me to come up with my word. It might tank me most of the day. You did a great job. I applaud your hard work and as usual your example is the best. Hope you have a good and blessed weekend my friend. Sending love to you and great big hugs. 💕❤️Joni
This was certainly one of the hardest forms thus far for me. Sending you love in return!
I would not even attempt that one. Bravo for your skill Brad!!! Thanks for the love ❤️ Jonikins
Hmmm. I’m intrigued by this form. Definitely challenging. Bravo, my friend!
I do not know that I dying to do another….it was tricky at its best times. Thank you, Kristian!
❤️❤️❤️
Thank you, my Poetess!
🌹
I felt exhausted after reading the poems you presented! Might just give it a go though.
It was challenging but also fun to stretch the word muscles! Hope you will share your success!